Romance goes the distance

David and Gigi Olmstead

Armando L. Sanchez, Chicago Tribune

David Olmstead and his wife Gigi Olmstead pose for a photograph with their 5-year-old son, Alex, at their home in Lakeview Aug. 9, 2013 in Chicago. Gigi was born in France and met David during her second week in the U.S.

David Olmstead and his wife Gigi Olmstead pose for a photograph with their 5-year-old son, Alex, at their home in Lakeview Aug. 9, 2013 in Chicago. Gigi was born in France and met David during her second week in the U.S. (Armando L. Sanchez, Chicago Tribune)

One of two things usually happens to people visiting a new country: They become cautious and are afraid to let their guard down, or they decide to take risks and embrace opportunities that present themselves during their brief adventure.

The latter approach can be credited with bringing Ghyslaine "Gigi" and David Olmstead together.

It was an internship that brought her to the U.S., at age 24, for the first time.

"When you're in another country, you feel more adventurous because you're already out of your comfort zone," says Gigi, now 39 and living in Lakeview with husband David and their son, Alex, 5.

Although her fortuitous trip to Chicago may have led them to each other, the happy ending was preceded by years of living separate lives on different continents.

Gigi was born in Vietnam, where she lived until she was 4. In 1977, her family moved to France. She was fluent in Vietnamese, French and English and longed to live in an English-speaking country. In 1998, she began to realize her dream when she got a marketing internship in Chicago with Air France.

David, then 29, was already in Chicago, working as a lawyer. He had long had a passion for all things French, having minored in French at the University of Michigan; he even spent his junior year abroad in Paris.

He was fluent in French and practiced his love for the language every Wednesday evening at Portillo's in River North, where a group gathered to speak French and sharpen their conversational skills. David had been attending for three years when in walked Gigi.

It was her first visit. She had been in the country for two weeks.

Gigi immediately began speaking in French to a man and gave him her number.

That man was not David. And yet David sat down next to Gigi and started talking to her.

"I was impressed with his French," Gigi said.

Although she considers herself reserved — and despite exchanging phone numbers with another man minutes prior — Gigi found herself doing something she would have never done before. She asked David for his phone number.

"I was surprised," said David, now 44, thinking back on that night. "She had been talking to another French guy, and I wasn't sure of her intentions."

But he gave her his number anyway.

An hour after parting for the evening, Gigi called David.

"I thought to myself, 'I'm here. I might as well immerse myself in the American culture,'" Gigi says, "and he seemed to know a lot about the city, and he seemed interesting."

The next night, they went to the movies. Soon they were officially dating.

Unfortunately, Gigi's internship was only three months long.

She returned to France to finish school.

David continued pursuing his career, and practicing his French at Portillo's.

Both realized the obstacles presented by the miles between them, and so they forged a long-distance but casual relationship, exchanging occasional emails and phone calls while getting on with their individual lives.

Still, Gigi began plotting to return to the U.S. She didn't tell David; she didn't want to scare him away, nor did she want him to think that she was planning her life around him.

Plus, it wasn't just about him but also about the country.

"I wasn't done with the United States," she says. "I had a good experience with the internship, but I felt that there was more that I wanted to explore."

She knew that the key to landing a job here would be to get an American degree. When she was admitted to Roosevelt University (to pursue a master's degree in marketing and communications), she decided to let David know that she would be moving back to Chicago.

Two years had passed since their first meeting.

"She didn't want to pressure me; it was a big thing," David says. "But I thought it was great."

When Gigi and David were reunited, they were determined to take it slowly to make sure that their relationship was solid.

They wanted to be certain that Gigi wasn't just in love with David because he was part of her American dream, and that Gigi wasn't just part of David's French fantasy.

But it turned out to be a fairy-tale romance after all.

Gigi finished school in 2002 and got a job in marketing. They moved in together a year later.

Then, on Valentine's Day 2004 — six years after they'd met, much of that time with an ocean separating them — David asked Gigi to join him on the balcony of their South Loop condo.

Gigi hesitated. After all, it's freezing in February.

Once again, her willingness to throw caution to the wind — even a winter wind in Chicago — paid off.

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